Old Harbour

Continuing on Old Harbour Road 18 kilometers southwest of Spanish Town, you arrive at the town of Old Harbour, a congested little backwater full of storefronts and food vendors next to the square. A clock tower dating from the 17th century is the town’s centerpiece.

Old Harbour was the disembarkation point for the first Indian indentured laborers arriving in 1845, who were brought to Jamaica following emancipation by plantation owners who suddenly found themselves lacking willing workers. A century later the bay was used as a U.S. Naval anchorage during World War II, with bases set up on Little Goat Island and at Salt Creek and Sandy Gully nearby on the mainland. The Americans didn’t depart until 1949.

Old Harbour Bay, 4.8 kilometers south of town, is historically significant as the place where Columbus met with the preeminent Taino leader referred to as the Cacique of Xamayca in 1494. It was an important port serving Spanish Town under Spanish rule and later under the British it was the principal port for the area, until Port Royal and later Kingston took over in imports and import. Originally called Puerto de Vaca (Cow Bay) by Columbus in reference to the manatees, or sea cows, that once flourished there, today the town is little more than a fishing village. Fish stalls along the waterfront peddle fried fish, conch soup, and lobster. Cheryl’s (cell tel. 876/410-3299, 10:30 a.m.–10 p.m. Tues.–Sun.), serving fried fish, bammy, and veggies right on the water with a sea breeze, is highly recommended.

Old Harbour Bay has a few islands, including Little Goat Island and Great Goat Island. A trip to the islands for a picnic can be arranged with local fishermen, some of whom live in ramshackle huts there.

Colbeck Castle, or the ruins where it once stood, can be found about three kilometers northwest of Old Harbour near the Clarendon border. To get to the abandoned ruins, head inland at the clock tower and keep straight ahead rather than right at the Y intersection. After passing a large farm with five buildings perpendicular to the road, you will soon cross a bridge over a small river. Take the first left after the bridge. Within 1.5 kilometers you will arrive at the ruins.

Built by Colonel John Colbeck, who came with the English to take Jamaica from the Spanish in 1655, the castle and its past are shrouded in mystery; its date of construction is thought to have been somewhere around 1680. In its day, it was the biggest great-house structure of its kind, obviously built with defense from the Spanish and Maroon insurgents in mind. Its present appearance suggests it fell victim to fire in slave revolts. Designed in the style of a 17th-century Italian mansion, with ornate arches and a 12-meter-high tower in each corner, Colbeck Castle was the epicenter of a strategically located immense landholding in close vicinity to Spanish Town and Old Harbour.